Young Beham- Rena Hicks (NC) c1921 Burton
[From: Some Ballad Folks, Burton 1978. Burton's notes; interview follow. Taken from Rena's "Ballit box" and recitation. This is the Hicks/Harmon version of the ballad collected from four different family (Jane Hicks Gentry 1916; Samuel Harmon's daughter 1928; Dora Hicks/Aunt Betty Hicks 1939; Roby Monroe Hicks/Buna Hicks 1940) members by four different collectors. The version itself is very old and unique although ravaged by time. The Hicks family settled into Henrico County, Virginia by the late 1600s. By 1770 many members of Samuel Hicks clan had moved to North Carolina and David Hicks and his son "Big Sammy" came to Valle Crucis (Beech Mountain area).
I've talked briefly to Thomas Burton about the Hicks. He inspired me to dig deeper into their family history. My grandfather, Maurice Matteson, collected ballads from Nathan hicks, Rena's husband and here is a photo of Nathan and his dulcimer:
Nathan Hicks c. 1934
Here's a different ballad I recorded playing Nathan's dulcimer that was collected by Maurice Matteson from Nathan Hicks of Sugar Grove, NC on July 31, 1933. Published in Beech Mountain Ballads in 1936 by G. Shirmer. Performed by Richard L. Matteson Jr. on Nathan Hicks' dulcimer made in early 1930s. Listen: [George Colon] Performers: Richard L. Matteson Jr. -dulcimer, with Kara Pleasants- vocal, and Zach Matteson- fiddle, in December 2011. Recorded by Bob Hitchcock Dec. 2011.
My father met Nathan when he was just six. Her remembered Ray Hicks the tall lanky one, who hid behind trees, playing hide-and-seek.
The Last Chivaree is a book written about Ray (Rena and Nathan) and gives this genealogy:
Rena Hicks, wife of Nathan and mother of Ray, was a daughter of Andrew Jackson Hicks 1877-1949) and Susan Ann Presnell Hicks (1881-1951). Andrew Jackson Hicks was a son of Samuel Hicks III and Rebecca Harmon, he was a brother of John Benjamin Hicks. Stanley Hicks (1911-1989), "double first cousin, of Ray, was a son of Roby Hicks (1882-1957) and Buena Vista ("Buny") presnell Hicks (1888- 1984). His father's parents were Samuel and Rebecca, and his brothers included John Benjamin Hicks, Ray's grandfather' Stanley married Virgie Pressley; their only son, David Hicks, is still living. Rosa Hicks' wife of Ray, was a daughter of Lee Monroe Harmon (1890-1973) and Mary Ellen McGuire (??-1971). Her grandfather, McKeller ("Kell") Harmon (1863-1950), was married to Susan Presnell (1884-1946). The Harmon line in America began with George Hermann (1710-1787), German-Austrian immigrant. John Henry Hicks, Mattie Hicks, and Barnabas B. Hicks, writing in their 1991 book
The Hicks Families of Western North Carolina (from which most of this genealogy is derived), declare that Council Harmon, born on the Watauga River, is an "oft-cited" source of English folktales handed down by the Hicks family.
R. Matteson 2014]
Burton: Occasionally Mrs. Rena would draw parallels between one song and another; "Young Beham" ("Young Beichan," child 53), for example, she associated in certain respects with "The Brown Girl'" "Susie Price, she was greatly in love. I just didn't make much difference in it and the other'n'. She just loved him good enough to give what she had fer him, and always saw him when she went to the jail."
"Young Beham" (a composite of a written fragment of hers and a recited version which she prefaced, "I don't know hardly how it starts; that's what I can't get on to, is how it starts or the very last, the way it finishes up, like where she took him his food, you know, when she went to see him. I reckon he loved her and she did him when they laid eyes on each other"):
Young Beham
"What would you give to a pretty girl
Who'd set you at Your liberty?"
He said, "The Glasgow town, it is all mine,
Besides two or three other buildin's.
"All this I'll give to any pretty girl, I'll pay it whole,
That sets me at my liberty."
She said, "Give me your right hand, your faith and your hope,
That you'll marry me in seven years from this day.
"And I'll lay down the ninety thousand pounds
And set you at your liberty."
And he promised her then the next day
That he'd marry her in seven years from that day.
And she laid down the ninety thousand pounds
And set him at his liberty.
Then she took him by the lily-white hand
And led him through the chambers three.
And the sugar bread and the wine so red
To nervish his fair body.
Seven years from that day-
["If I'd had to waited that long to go I couldn't go to no wedding!"]
Her old father built a little boat
And put it on the raging sea.
And there he put enough silver and gold
To bear her sweet company.
And she floated low and she floated high,
Until she come to Lord Beham's gate.
She jangled at the ring.
Lord Beham's servant run to the gate
To interduce her in.
He run back to Lord Beham and said,
"There's the prettiest girl at your gate
My two eyes have ever seen."
"Well, I'll lay down ninety thousand pounds
That Miss Susie Price has crossed the sea."
["And when they met, then he told her that he just got married, they's just through the weddin'ceremony. And he said,"]
"I'll wed you to my oldest brother."
"I wisht you luck with your older brother,
But I don't want no such a man'
"Pay me back my ninety thousand pounds
And I will go back to the Turkish land."
"Oh, Miss Susie, this won't never do,
I'll wed you to my younger brother."
"I wisht you luck with your younger brother,
But I don't want no such a man.
"Pay me back my ninety thousand pounds;
I will go back to the Turkish land."
And he said, "Miss Susie, this won't never do,
I'm married to the girl this morning,
"But she's none the worst for me.
I'll wed you to my own self."
Up jumped her old mother in anger,
And kicked over the table.
[..And then the mother-in.law I'd call it- well, I imagine with the way the table was kicked over, I imagine, it was the wed-
ding dinner'"]
In this song, as in "The Brown Girl," she was aware of conflict between parents and lovers; but she wasn't severely critical, "She went against her father in a way, but in a way he did fair. He built a boat fer her to go get Young Beham, and then put enough silver and gold to pay the expenses; it said to bear sweet company, but that was expense." Mrs. Rena's sympathies extended not just to Susie and her lover, but to the other parties involved... "well, I figured in a way that left the mother-in-law there to worry and that daughter, too, if she loved him." There was even understanding for the mother's kicking over the wedding dinner: "I think she just flew off of the handle, I'd call it' She didn't really know what she was doing, right at that minute-you know how anybody's temper gets when they's young. I don't have no temper like that no more; I wouldn't hurt nobody for nothin'. If they were goin' to kill me, I'd just run if I could; I never did have to fight; I'd run, show the bottoms of my shoes, and run fast."